Sobre el Artista

I was born in Michigan and I have lived most of my life here, except for 4 years in the US Air Force and a year in Europe after my time in the Air Force. I have also spent a lot of time in Canada, which is sort of "next door" to Michigan. A majority of my work consists of wheel thrown porcelain forms based on organic patterns of microscopic and macroscopic organisms. Some are based on seedpods, teeth, pollen, sea animals, squash, and even watermelon, but as the development proceeds, they merge and take on new forms of possible and imaginary organisms. All are hand made, one of-a-kind pieces, usually done in a series, so there might be some similarity among some pieces, but no two are ever exactly alike. For much of my life I have been involved in various types of so-called arts & crafts, and an early memory is making clay jack-o-lanterns in kindergarten. I am experienced in leather work, lapidary, copper enamel, copper tool, ceramic tile, reed basketry, lanyard weaving, and other crafts. I learned to slip cast clay while in the Air Force, and to throw pots in my first semester at Central Michigan University. I started in ceramics and was gradually drawn into sculpture over the next few years, until I had a dual concentration in both. My road to becoming a professional fine artist started in functional ceramics, led into sculptural ceramics, to sculpture in clay, through some video experiments, and now even including computer graphics. For most of my life, I have been both attracted to and very allergic to, large numbers of trees, grasses, and bushes. I have refused to become trapped indoors just because of these allergies, and as I began to develop unique sculptural forms, I examined both macroscopic and microscopic elements of nature. By examining the form and structure of seeds and other natural objects, I found great beauty in these simple forms, and developed simple organic sculptural designs, based on slightly abstract versions of these natural world objects.